There’s been a lot of discussion happening in my world related to learning design and learning spaces. The local Penn State community has been talking about the Learning Design Summer Camp and the way that it’s being organized.  The entire concept behind it is that it’s now up to the community to organize it, plan it, and make it happen.   The recent blog posts by Cole Camplese and Chris Stubbs talk about this, and start the conversation about Web 2.0 and open participation.  You should really read both if you have time.. they’re worth it.

Those posts have now led me to think about learning spaces as well.  I will be speaking at several upcoming conferences related to virtual learning spaces, and how we are rethinking where learning can actually take place.  As I start to toss all these things around in my head, it’s as though our entire culture is so close to the edge of change that I feel as though I should put up some signs or something to let everyone know that it’s all about to explode… and in a big way.  I think that the more we dive into the meaning of community and participation online, the ‘water cooler’ no longer exists in the back corner of the office, but on websites, mobile phones, and in these tools of technology that are changing our lives.  We’re no longer stuck asking our office mate if they know how to do something, because we truly.. have a world of knowledge at our fingertips. If we’re feeling particularly personal we can twitter a request that no doubt, several people will answer. If we’d rather remain a little more quiet, we can ask Google who will provide us with so much information on any particular topic that we’ll have to filter it ourselves.

I’ve been asked to participate in several EDUCAUSE sessions this fall and winter to discuss learning spaces and initiatives. Initially I was really focused on the spaces I’m creating in Second Life for our online students.  More and more though, I’m seeing that almost every online community and conversation is a learning space in itself.  Like so many other people have been saying lately, this is a very exciting time to be thinking about our culture and how we learn and communicate.

A quick search under “Places” for “coffee” in Second Life (without the mature areas showing) puts my little coffee shop in Mill Pond at number 3 on the list.  It also puts my island, Mill Pond, at number 7.

If we turn on the ‘mature’ areas, we’re listed at number 4 and number 8.

Now, if you search Places and select only “Hangouts” from the drop-down menu in search? We’re number one out of 48 hits listed for “coffee”. Pretty neat stuff.